What the papers say about the former Sir Fred Goodwin…

Most of today’s front pages were devoted to the removal of Fred Goodwin’s knighthood, with three choosing mild puns on his nickname.

The Daily Telegraph gave us “Goodwin is shredded”, the Financial Times ran “Sir Fred’s honour shredded”, and The Guardian came up with “A reputation shredded: Sir Fred loses his knighthood”.

The Independent looked rather red-toppish with a single word: “Dishonoured” while its little sister, i, went for “Shredded”.

By far the best headline of the day was Metro’s “Fred the pleb!” The Daily Mail’s headline, “Humbling of Mister Goodwin”, had the Mister rather unnecessarily underlined.

The Times changed its mind between editions. In one, it carried the straightforward: “Dishonoured: Goodwin stripped of knighthood”. In another, it said: “Disgraced Goodwin is stripped of knighthood.”

The Sun preferred, as is its wont, a sexual pun: “Once a knight Fred: Love-rat stripped of gong”. Surprisingly, the Daily Mirror didn’t lead with the story, carrying only a blurb on page one, “Orf with his Fred!”

The Times, in a leader headlined The dishonours system, considered it “a mistake” to have given Goodwin a knighthood in the first place. But it argued that taking it away “was cheap.” It continued:

“This is the first time it has been done for, effectively, commercial incompetence. And the setting of such a precedent is worrying…

It is the selection of an individual for public humiliation, and the changing of the rules just for him in order to make sure he is properly humiliated. Due process is replaced by the rule of the mob.”

The argument that it was the rule of the mob was echoed by two other titles.

The Telegraph’s leader, Who’s next in line for ritual humiliation? thought the decision set “a new benchmark, whereby anyone identified as a convenient scapegoat for the country’s woes can be similarly disparaged.” It went on:

“David Cameron and the other leading politicians who have encouraged this populist bloodlust should be ashamed of themselves. Now that the precedent has been set, the mob will want more, because it always does.”

He had “contributed to his own misfortune by his unrepentant demeanour since the collapse of RBS.”

The FT leader continued: “Having disdained public opinion, he cannot complain about becoming a target for public opprobrium and for a prime minister eager to deflect attention to still-outsized bankers’ bonuses.”

Goodwin’s humbling, it added, “is a reminder that there has never been a proper accounting for the crisis, and very few prosecutions, unlike in the US.”